31. On 7 January 2014, the Applicant and his wife enrolled in a three-month rolling winter night shelter programme for rough sleepers run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC). Two days later, on 9 January, they turned up at Barnsbury Jobcentre of the Department for Work and Pensions to sign on for Jobseeker’s Allowance only to be told that the Applicant’s joint claim had been terminated because they had earlier refused to agree to Jobseeker’s Agreements drawn up by the Jobcentre that they had argued were inappropriate. Neither the Applicant nor his wife were issued with a letter of termination with or without appeal rights, and on 22 January the Applicant filed a claim in the High Court for judicial review against Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith on the ground of procedural unfairness (see Annex 10, Department for Work and Pensions: Application for Judicial Review, pp. 28-33) [emphasis added]. Secretary of State Duncan Smith, in the Acknowledgement of Service, acknowledged that the Applicant had legitimate grounds for refusing to sign his Jobseeker’s Agreement as varied by the Jobcentre and he accordingly paid the Applicant arrears of Jobseeker's Allowance to 9 January 2014 (see Annex 11, Department for Work and Pensions: Order by High Judge Phillips, p. 34). On 21 January 2014, the day before the Applicant lodged his case in the High Court against Secretary of State Duncan Smith, he and his wife were approached by a WLCHC worker about an offer of a flat that had been made by the Single Homeless Project (SHP) on behalf of Mayor of London Boris Johnson's Greater London Authority (GLA) Housing First programme; however, the offer was dependent upon the Applicant and his wife receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance or alternatively producing two employment contracts that would cover the amount they would need to qualify for Housing Benefit. On 5 February 2014, following a donation from an American benefactor, the Applicant and his wife presented SHP GLA Housing First with two such contracts as employees of N4CM, but they were nevertheless rendered street homeless when the WLCHC night shelters closed on 13 April 2014, due to the accommodation on offer being unavailable.

Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out -- Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

About me

I am a former psychologist from Madrid. My husband, Declan, is a former teacher from Dublin. We were forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost 4 years in total - from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009, and again from 14 April 2013 to 17 May 2014. We came to England in August 2003 from Ireland, and established Network for Church Monitoring in January 2011. We have no children.

Links

Network for Church Monitoring

The Church and State website at churchandstate.org.uk is an initiative of our London-based Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), a non-profit, non-partisan company limited by guarantee (number 7496571). Registered Office: Suite 101, 254 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JY.

N4CM is dedicated to shifting the discussion about the importance of secular government back into the mainstream so as to find solutions for the great challenges of the 21st century. We are committed to women’s reproductive rights, immigration reform and the policies and programmes focused on a human rights approach to family planning and population stabilisation.

Participants in the Church and State website include 40 Nobel laureates (29 Signatories, 10 book excerpts and two Honorary Associates; the late Nobel Laureate Christian de Duve provided us with both his signature for our online petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and a book excerpt); eight members of the UK's House of Lords; and several hundred distinguished scholars from around the world.

Google Analytics says over 70% of our hits are from Americans.

'Let me recommend an important web site - churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty